Writing Day 13

You know how everything goes ok. . . Until it doesn’t? Yeah, I’ve hit the first, second, and third problems relating to this new novel of mine, and I have no doubt many other people have had the same issues.

Internal editor wouldn’t shut up. Instead of getting the story down, I kept fiddling with details.

I suddenly forgot how to move forward. I knew where I was and where I wanted to be next – and those places were only a tiny step apart – but somehow I couldn’t work out how to take that step.

Chucked out of the story. When I took a break from it, I couldn’t get back into the mindset of story or the characters, and instead felt like an outsider.

From what I’ve read and from how I got over it, the first problem you just have to work through. I kept writing, watched out for slips into editing mode, and stopped myself whenever I noticed I was doing it. I reminded myself a lot that that’s what second, third, fourth,. . . drafts are for, and that these changes I was spending time on would be done better later. It also helped when I limited re-reading to a paragraph.

The second and third problems. . . Oh dear.

I knew from previous experience that taking a break from a story can help sometimes, if you get a bit stuck or you’re finding it heavy going. (Problem 2.) Since I had a few deadlines coming up as well, I decided to leave my novel while I worked on a short story or two. Great. Only my break turned into a week focused on these short stories. It’s ok, I told myself, you’ve picked up after longer than that.

As soon as I opened the novel I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be so easy this time. I read the last paragraph, the last chapter, my notes. . . Finally I resorted to skimming through from the beginning. But something vital just wasn’t there: I felt completely shut out and disconnected, like the characters were one at a time turning their backs on me because I’d walked out on them first. (Damn writer’s imagination)

So that’s where I am right now. Still working on problems 2 and 3, but while I’m looking for a solution, here’s a couple of things I’ve figured out so far:

Sometimes you need to take a break from a certain piece of writing. Sometimes doing that (however necessary) can cause other issues.

My guess is, problems like this lack of connection are less likely to happen if you stop in a place where you feel positive toward the writing, or have some idea of what’s coming next. Maybe if you add a brief note as to what that next bit might be, that could help too.

‘Writer’s write’ is probably going to be my solution: start writing the story, maybe skip a scene ahead and work out how to connect it in later. I don’t like working out of sequence, but needs must and all that. Wish me luck. (And more cooperative characters)